On 2021-07-21, Thomas Koenig <tkoenig@netcologne.de> wrote:

>> As many as Wells had when he wrote _War of the WOrlds._
>
> That was a bitter satire on European colonianism.
>
> Blood-sucking aliens, indeed...

Wait, didn't Wells write that at the time when "the white man's
burden" was the generally held view?

I was amused to notice that the British Army is largely ineffectual
against the Martians and it is up to the Royal Navy to make a stand.
That feels like such a British Empire kind of thing.

--
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@mips.inka.de

On 2021-07-21, Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> wrote:

>> Be careful what you wish for. The Klingons don't have a Prime
>> Directive.
>
> But as Arthur C. Clarke has clearly explained, aggressive species
> destroy themselves before going into space; any advanced race
> that reaches Earth will be highly benevolent, morally ahead of us
> as well as technologically!

People keep making such claims as if it were a self-evident truth.
I have no idea what "morally ahead" is even supposed to mean. It
presupposes that there is an ordering or a metric to ethics. That
is a giant assumption, based on... nothing? An article of faith?

If you think that "evolutionarily more advanced" is an iffy concept,
then "morally ahead" should really trigger your objection.

Charles Pellegrino offers a less naive view of what we can reasonably
assume about alien species, based on evolutionary thinking:

1. Their survival will be more important than our survival.
If an alien species has to choose between them and us, they
won't choose us. It is difficult to imagine a contrary case;
species don't survive by being self-sacrificing.

2. Wimps don't become top dogs.
No species makes it to the top by being passive. The species
in charge of any given planet will be highly intelligent,
alert, aggressive, and ruthless when necessary.

3. They will assume that the first two laws apply to us.

(Quoted from _The Killing Star_.)

--
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@mips.inka.de

On Wednesday, July 21, 2021 at 6:05:04 PM UTC-4, Dorothy J Heydt wrote:
> In article <ry_JI.21157$7H7....@fx42.iad>,
> Scott Lurndal <sl...@pacbell.net> wrote:
> >djh...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) writes:
> >
> >>And here's a YASID: What story begins with the sentence "I have
> >>no intention of explaining how I learned this story"?
> >
> >Would that start with "My Dear Wormwood"?
> Maybe. I've already had to get Hal to stand guard at the fiction
> room door once today, don't feel like doing it again (he's in the
> middle of a game). I've already explained about the cats, whose
> greatest ambition is to get into the book rooms where they are
> not supposed to be.
>
> And here's another question: How can I get ISFDB to search for
> the Sturgeon story "The [Widget], the [Wadget], and Boff"? I
> suspect the square brackets are throwing the software off.
> Ahasuerus, are you around today?

A "Fiction Titles" search on "The [Widget], the [Wadget], and Boff" should
do the trick. "wadget" or "and boff" should work too since they are all
sufficiently unique.

On Wednesday, July 21, 2021 at 11:14:11 AM UTC-4, Thomas Koenig wrote:
> Dorothy J Heydt <djh...@kithrup.com> schrieb:
> > In article <0arffgdgku8ij2hr2...@4ax.com>,
> > J. Clarke <jclarke...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>On Wed, 21 Jul 2021 02:00:57 -0700 (PDT), Quadibloc
> >><jsa...@ecn.ab.ca> wrote:
> >>
> >>>On Tuesday, July 20, 2021 at 5:38:17 AM UTC-6, J. Clarke wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> Be careful what you wish for. The Klingons don't have a Prime
> >>>> Directive.
> >>>
> >>>But as Arthur C. Clarke has clearly explained, aggressive species
> >>>destroy themselves before going into space; any advanced race
> >>>that reaches Earth will be highly benevolent, morally ahead of us
> >>>as well as technologically!
> >>
> >>And he based that on experience with _how_ many ETs?
> >
> > As many as Wells had when he wrote _War of the WOrlds._
> That was a bitter satire on European colonianism.
>
> Blood-sucking aliens, indeed...

Wells had a few interesting things to say about the "inferior races" in
__Anticipations_ (1901)
https://gutenberg.org/files/19229/19229-h/19229-h.htm :

"And how will the New Republic treat the inferior races? How will it deal
with the black? how will it deal with the yellow man? how will it tackle
that alleged termite in the civilized woodwork, the Jew? Certainly not as
races at all. It will aim to establish, and it will at last, though probably only
after a second century has passed, establish a world-state with a common
language and a common rule. All over the world its roads, its standards, its
laws, and its apparatus of control will run. It will, I have said, make the
multiplication of those who fall behind a certain standard of social
efficiency unpleasant and difficult, and it will have cast aside any coddling
laws to save adult men from themselves. It will tolerate no dark corners
where the people of the Abyss may fester, no vast diffused slums of
peasant proprietors, no stagnant plague-preserves. Whatever men may
come into its efficient citizenship it will let come—white, black, red, or
brown; the efficiency will be the test.

[snip Wells's ruminations about the Jews]

And for the rest, those swarms of black, and brown, and dirty-white, and
yellow people, who do not come into the new needs of efficiency?

Well, the world is a world, not a charitable institution, and I take it they
will have to go. The whole tenor and meaning of the world, as I see it, is
that they have to go. So far as they fail to develop sane, vigorous, and
distinctive personalities for the great world of the future, it is their
portion to die out and disappear."

djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) writes:
>In article <ry_JI.21157$7H7.2746@fx42.iad>,
>Scott Lurndal <slp53@pacbell.net> wrote:
>>djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) writes:
>>
>>>And here's a YASID: What story begins with the sentence "I have
>>>no intention of explaining how I learned this story"?
>>
>>Would that start with "My Dear Wormwood"?
>
>Maybe. I've already had to get Hal to stand guard at the fiction
>room door once today, don't feel like doing it again (he's in the
>middle of a game). I've already explained about the cats, whose
>greatest ambition is to get into the book rooms where they are
>not supposed to be.

The Screwtape Letters starts with:

"I have no intention of explaining how the correspondence
which I now offer to the public fell into my hands."

C.S. Lewis.

On Wed, 21 Jul 2021 15:41:25 -0700 (PDT), Ahasuerus
<ahasuerus@email.com> wrote:

>On Wednesday, July 21, 2021 at 6:05:04 PM UTC-4, Dorothy J Heydt wrote:
>> In article <ry_JI.21157$7H7....@fx42.iad>,
>> Scott Lurndal <sl...@pacbell.net> wrote:
>> >djh...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) writes:
>> >
>> >>And here's a YASID: What story begins with the sentence "I have
>> >>no intention of explaining how I learned this story"?
>> >
>> >Would that start with "My Dear Wormwood"?
>> Maybe. I've already had to get Hal to stand guard at the fiction
>> room door once today, don't feel like doing it again (he's in the
>> middle of a game). I've already explained about the cats, whose
>> greatest ambition is to get into the book rooms where they are
>> not supposed to be.
>>
>> And here's another question: How can I get ISFDB to search for
>> the Sturgeon story "The [Widget], the [Wadget], and Boff"? I
>> suspect the square brackets are throwing the software off.
>> Ahasuerus, are you around today?
>
>A "Fiction Titles" search on "The [Widget], the [Wadget], and Boff" should
>do the trick. "wadget" or "and boff" should work too since they are all
>sufficiently unique.

I was curious about the story, and looked for it on Amazon. Found it
in "Selected Stories" and learned something. I did not realize how
much Sturgeon I had read and loved.

On Wednesday, July 21, 2021 at 6:30:08 PM UTC-4, Christian Weisgerber wrote:
> On 2021-07-21, Thomas Koenig <tko...@netcologne.de> wrote:
>
> >> As many as Wells had when he wrote _War of the WOrlds._
> >
> > That was a bitter satire on European colonianism.
> >
> > Blood-sucking aliens, indeed...
> Wait, didn't Wells write that at the time when "the white man's
> burden" was the generally held view?

WotW: 1897, WMB: 1899.

I don't know about 'generally held'. WMB got a *lot* of contemporary
pushback, in the UK, the US, and elsewhere. [BTW, most people seem
unaware that WMB is addressed to the American people, telling them
of the difficulties they will encounter civilizing the Philippines].

Pt

On Thursday, July 22, 2021 at 9:53:41 AM UTC+10, pete...@gmail.com wrote:
> On Wednesday, July 21, 2021 at 6:30:08 PM UTC-4, Christian Weisgerber wrote:
> > On 2021-07-21, Thomas Koenig <tko...@netcologne.de> wrote:
> >
> > >> As many as Wells had when he wrote _War of the WOrlds._
> > >
> > > That was a bitter satire on European colonianism.
> > >
> > > Blood-sucking aliens, indeed...
> > Wait, didn't Wells write that at the time when "the white man's
> > burden" was the generally held view?
> WotW: 1897, WMB: 1899.
>
> I don't know about 'generally held'. WMB got a *lot* of contemporary
> pushback, in the UK, the US, and elsewhere. [BTW, most people seem
> unaware that WMB is addressed to the American people, telling them
> of the difficulties they will encounter civilizing the Philippines].

Asimov knew that. In "Asimov's Chronology of the World" he wrote:

"Kipling made it sound as though Americans were going to be sent to the Philippines to be dutiful servants, cooks and shoeshine boys to the Filipinos. It was the other way around, as Kipling well knew.

As for the Filipinos, they were horrified that their insurrection had merely served to switch masters from Spaniards to Americans. They did not want to be a burden to the white man; they wanted to run their own country."

One of the reasons I love that book, despite it's dubious usefulness as a history book, is that Asimov makes no pretense at objectivity as proper historians are supposed to do. Instead, he passes judgement as he sees fit, often in a wonderfully snarky way.

-Moriarty

On 7/21/2021 3:08 PM, Christian Weisgerber wrote:
> On 2021-07-21, Thomas Koenig <tkoenig@netcologne.de> wrote:
>
>>> As many as Wells had when he wrote _War of the WOrlds._
>>
>> That was a bitter satire on European colonianism.
>>
>> Blood-sucking aliens, indeed...
>
> Wait, didn't Wells write that at the time when "the white man's
> burden" was the generally held view?
>
Wells was pretty seriously "anti-establishment".

--
Troll, troll, troll your post gently down the thread
Angrily, angrily, angrily, the net's a nut's scream.

In article <hjbhfg198qiv25cegkqhaped76pa9t7b83@4ax.com>,
J. Clarke <jclarke.873638@gmail.com> wrote:
>On Wed, 21 Jul 2021 15:41:25 -0700 (PDT), Ahasuerus
><ahasuerus@email.com> wrote:
>
>>On Wednesday, July 21, 2021 at 6:05:04 PM UTC-4, Dorothy J Heydt wrote:
>>> In article <ry_JI.21157$7H7....@fx42.iad>,
>>> Scott Lurndal <sl...@pacbell.net> wrote:
>>> >djh...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) writes:
>>> >
>>> >>And here's a YASID: What story begins with the sentence "I have
>>> >>no intention of explaining how I learned this story"?
>>> >
>>> >Would that start with "My Dear Wormwood"?
>>> Maybe. I've already had to get Hal to stand guard at the fiction
>>> room door once today, don't feel like doing it again (he's in the
>>> middle of a game). I've already explained about the cats, whose
>>> greatest ambition is to get into the book rooms where they are
>>> not supposed to be.
>>>
>>> And here's another question: How can I get ISFDB to search for
>>> the Sturgeon story "The [Widget], the [Wadget], and Boff"? I
>>> suspect the square brackets are throwing the software off.
>>> Ahasuerus, are you around today?
>>
>>A "Fiction Titles" search on "The [Widget], the [Wadget], and Boff" should
>>do the trick. "wadget" or "and boff" should work too since they are all
>>sufficiently unique.
>
>I was curious about the story, and looked for it on Amazon. Found it
>in "Selected Stories" and learned something. I did not realize how
>much Sturgeon I had read and loved.

It hasn't been reprinted much.

--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/

In article <f8bbc0c7-d881-4800-93f8-e5ef1f9148a2n@googlegroups.com>,
Ahasuerus <ahasuerus@email.com> wrote:
>On Wednesday, July 21, 2021 at 6:05:04 PM UTC-4, Dorothy J Heydt wrote:
>> In article <ry_JI.21157$7H7....@fx42.iad>,
>> Scott Lurndal <sl...@pacbell.net> wrote:
>> >djh...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) writes:
>> >
>> >>And here's a YASID: What story begins with the sentence "I have
>> >>no intention of explaining how I learned this story"?
>> >
>> >Would that start with "My Dear Wormwood"?
>> Maybe. I've already had to get Hal to stand guard at the fiction
>> room door once today, don't feel like doing it again (he's in the
>> middle of a game). I've already explained about the cats, whose
>> greatest ambition is to get into the book rooms where they are
>> not supposed to be.
>>
>> And here's another question: How can I get ISFDB to search for
>> the Sturgeon story "The [Widget], the [Wadget], and Boff"? I
>> suspect the square brackets are throwing the software off.
>> Ahasuerus, are you around today?
>
>A "Fiction Titles" search on "The [Widget], the [Wadget], and Boff" should
>do the trick.

Only it didn't. I got "not found."

"wadget" or "and boff" should work too since they are all
>sufficiently unique.

Thanks! "Wadget" (without brackets) worked.

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=Wadget&type=Fiction+Titles

--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/

In article <WH1KI.50521$h8.10806@fx47.iad>,
Scott Lurndal <slp53@pacbell.net> wrote:
>djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) writes:
>>In article <ry_JI.21157$7H7.2746@fx42.iad>,
>>Scott Lurndal <slp53@pacbell.net> wrote:
>>>djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) writes:
>>>
>>>>And here's a YASID: What story begins with the sentence "I have
>>>>no intention of explaining how I learned this story"?
>>>
>>>Would that start with "My Dear Wormwood"?
>>
>>Maybe. I've already had to get Hal to stand guard at the fiction
>>room door once today, don't feel like doing it again (he's in the
>>middle of a game). I've already explained about the cats, whose
>>greatest ambition is to get into the book rooms where they are
>>not supposed to be.
>
>The Screwtape Letters starts with:
>
> "I have no intention of explaining how the correspondence
> which I now offer to the public fell into my hands."
>
>C.S. Lewis.

Thank you.

--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/

In article <slrnsfh6m0.27v8.naddy@lorvorc.mips.inka.de>,
Christian Weisgerber <naddy@mips.inka.de> wrote:
>On 2021-07-21, Thomas Koenig <tkoenig@netcologne.de> wrote:
>
>>> As many as Wells had when he wrote _War of the WOrlds._
>>
>> That was a bitter satire on European colonianism.
>>
>> Blood-sucking aliens, indeed...
>
>Wait, didn't Wells write that at the time when "the white man's
>burden" was the generally held view?

Yes. But he was a Socialist and didn't hold the generally held
view.

--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/

On 7/21/2021 4:53 PM, Dorothy J Heydt wrote:
> In article <ry_JI.21157$7H7.2746@fx42.iad>,
> Scott Lurndal <slp53@pacbell.net> wrote:
>> djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) writes:
>>
>>> And here's a YASID: What story begins with the sentence "I have
>>> no intention of explaining how I learned this story"?
>>
>> Would that start with "My Dear Wormwood"?
>
> Maybe. I've already had to get Hal to stand guard at the fiction
> room door once today, don't feel like doing it again (he's in the
> middle of a game). I've already explained about the cats, whose
> greatest ambition is to get into the book rooms where they are
> not supposed to be.
....

Doesn't Hal want to sit in the doorway and play with the kitteh cats
while you browse your book stash for a few hours ?

Lynn

On 7/21/2021 7:41 PM, Lynn McGuire wrote:
> On 7/21/2021 4:53 PM, Dorothy J Heydt wrote:
>> In article <ry_JI.21157$7H7.2746@fx42.iad>,
>> Scott Lurndal <slp53@pacbell.net> wrote:
>>> djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) writes:
>>>
>>>> And here's a YASID: What story begins with the sentence "I have
>>>> no intention of explaining how I learned this story"?
>>>
>>> Would that start with "My Dear Wormwood"?
>>
>> Maybe.  I've already had to get Hal to stand guard at the fiction
>> room door once today, don't feel like doing it again (he's in the
>> middle of a game).  I've already explained about the cats, whose
>> greatest ambition is to get into the book rooms where they are
>> not supposed to be.
> ...
>
> Doesn't Hal want to sit in the doorway and play with the kitteh cats
> while you browse your book stash for a few hours ?
>
Dorothy is the Grandma of SF who never wants to put anyone to any
trouble. :)

--
Troll, troll, troll your post gently down the thread
Angrily, angrily, angrily, the net's a nut's scream.

On Wednesday, July 21, 2021 at 10:16:15 AM UTC-6, Paul S Person wrote:

> I'm sorry, but this no-doubt very well established intellectual
> literary theory doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to me.

It was analogy, not allegory?

It illustrated what it felt like to be under the heel of a vastly
more technically advanced race that cared as little for you
as you did for ants... but it had the only plausible happy
ending that it could so as to make it palatable.

That in the real world, tropical diseases were an impediment,
but not insuperable, to colonialism... well, Africa wasn't on
another planet, after all.

John Savard

On Wednesday, July 21, 2021 at 10:37:22 AM UTC-6, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:

> Well, that's not what destroyed the empires, but that's the reason
> why the African & Indian colonies were never colonies of settlement
> like the Americas, Australia, NZ etc. The "tropical diseases" were
> generally fatal for Europeans.

Nitpick: the existence of Rhodesia and the Union of South Africa...

John Savard

On Wednesday, July 21, 2021 at 6:28:24 PM UTC-6, Moriarty quoted, in part:
> "Kipling made it sound as though Americans were going to be sent to the Philippines
> to be dutiful servants, cooks and shoeshine boys to the Filipinos. It was the other way
> around, as Kipling well knew.

Well, of course he knew that - and he was not denying that. After all, that was exactly
the reason that the Americans would get no thanks for doing the hard work of dragging
the Filipinos out of savagery and into civilization!

Kipling may seem disingenuous by modern standards, but he was not dishonest.

John Savard

On Wednesday, July 21, 2021 at 9:12:55 PM UTC-6, Dimensional Traveler wrote:

> Dorothy is the Grandma of SF who never wants to put anyone to any
> trouble. :)

I certainly see nothing wrong with that attitude.

John Savard

In article <be0b80e6-c940-4a06-af99-f52ddfd794e6n@googlegroups.com>,
Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> wrote:
>On Wednesday, July 21, 2021 at 10:37:22 AM UTC-6, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
>
>> Well, that's not what destroyed the empires, but that's the reason
>> why the African & Indian colonies were never colonies of settlement
>> like the Americas, Australia, NZ etc. The "tropical diseases" were
>> generally fatal for Europeans.
>
>Nitpick: the existence of Rhodesia and the Union of South Africa...
>
>John Savard

I didn't want to get too detailed. Basically Africa between the
Sahara and the Cape area is deadly to Europeans. North Africa &
the Cape area are much less inimical. I believe according to
Diamond, the climate is so different in the Cape area that black
Africans didn't colonize it until the same era the Europeans
did because their usual crop mix would not grow there. After that
the native Bushmen got it from both sides..
--
columbiaclosings.com
What's not in Columbia anymore..

In article <sdalsv$t42$1@dont-email.me>,
Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
>On 7/21/2021 4:53 PM, Dorothy J Heydt wrote:
>> In article <ry_JI.21157$7H7.2746@fx42.iad>,
>> Scott Lurndal <slp53@pacbell.net> wrote:
>>> djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) writes:
>>>
>>>> And here's a YASID: What story begins with the sentence "I have
>>>> no intention of explaining how I learned this story"?
>>>
>>> Would that start with "My Dear Wormwood"?
>>
>> Maybe. I've already had to get Hal to stand guard at the fiction
>> room door once today, don't feel like doing it again (he's in the
>> middle of a game). I've already explained about the cats, whose
>> greatest ambition is to get into the book rooms where they are
>> not supposed to be.
>...
>
>Doesn't Hal want to sit in the doorway and play with the kitteh cats
>while you browse your book stash for a few hours ?
>
Nope. He wants to level another of his alts, or to read all the
snarky comments on _The Register_, or upgrade the software on yet
another Raspberry Pi, or any number of other things, mostly
involving the computer. And since he helps me with so many other
things, such as making breakfast every day, and helping me walk
when my legs are weak, and driving me to doctors' appointments,
et multa cetera, I don't like to disturb him any oftener than I
have to.

--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/

In article <sdannk$73l$1@dont-email.me>,
Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
>On 7/21/2021 7:41 PM, Lynn McGuire wrote:
>> On 7/21/2021 4:53 PM, Dorothy J Heydt wrote:
>>> In article <ry_JI.21157$7H7.2746@fx42.iad>,
>>> Scott Lurndal <slp53@pacbell.net> wrote:
>>>> djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) writes:
>>>>
>>>>> And here's a YASID: What story begins with the sentence "I have
>>>>> no intention of explaining how I learned this story"?
>>>>
>>>> Would that start with "My Dear Wormwood"?
>>>
>>> Maybe.  I've already had to get Hal to stand guard at the fiction
>>> room door once today, don't feel like doing it again (he's in the
>>> middle of a game).  I've already explained about the cats, whose
>>> greatest ambition is to get into the book rooms where they are
>>> not supposed to be.
>> ...
>>
>> Doesn't Hal want to sit in the doorway and play with the kitteh cats
>> while you browse your book stash for a few hours ?
>>
>Dorothy is the Grandma of SF who never wants to put anyone to any
>trouble. :)
>
Well, not quite. (I am the grandmother of Vincent, Ydris, and
Auberon, but that's another matter.) And I try to resist the
urge to put anyone to any trouble if it can be avoided, because
so often it can't.

--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/

On Wednesday, July 21, 2021 at 10:26:39 PM UTC-6, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
> I believe according to
> Diamond, the climate is so different in the Cape area that black
> Africans didn't colonize it until the same era the Europeans
> did because their usual crop mix would not grow there. After that
> the native Bushmen got it from both sides..

And this fact was even used by white South Africans as an excuse for
apartheid, on the basis that the "bantu" were immigrants.

John Savard

On Wednesday, July 21, 2021 at 10:30:03 PM UTC-6, Dorothy J Heydt wrote:
> In article <sdalsv$t42$1...@dont-email.me>,
> Lynn McGuire <lynnmc...@gmail.com> wrote:

> >Doesn't Hal want to sit in the doorway and play with the kitteh cats
> >while you browse your book stash for a few hours ?

> Nope. He wants to level another of his alts, or to read all the
> snarky comments on _The Register_, or upgrade the software on yet
> another Raspberry Pi, or any number of other things, mostly
> involving the computer. And since he helps me with so many other
> things, such as making breakfast every day, and helping me walk
> when my legs are weak, and driving me to doctors' appointments,
> et multa cetera, I don't like to disturb him any oftener than I
> have to.

While I can't blame him for wanting to do such things, no doubt he can
figure out how to put wheels on his computer desk or some such
thing so that he can do those things wile still facilitating increased
access to your SF book collection.

Or something can be worked out involving you scheduling an appointment
which will least inconvenience him. If you're willing to go halfway and make
it easier for him to help you, everyone can be happy.

John Savard

Christian Weisgerber <naddy@mips.inka.de> schrieb:

> 2. Wimps don't become top dogs.
> No species makes it to the top by being passive. The species
> in charge of any given planet will be highly intelligent,
> alert, aggressive, and ruthless when necessary.

I always have wondered how the stsho made it into space, how they
defended themselves against predators earlier in their history.

Or did the Knnn do a little uplifting?